Heritage Foundation
“Sins of the Children: Punishing Businesses for Employees’ Crimes” by Dr. John Hasnas, Brad Berenson,Alice Fisher, U.S. Department of Justice

On August 16 and 17, WIP interns were invited by the Heritage Foundation to attend one (or both) panel discussions. The first was titled: “Sins of the Children: Punishing Businesses for Employees’ Crimes,” and it was presented by John Hasnas, J.D., Ph.D., LL.M., who is an associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business; Brad Berenson, a partner in the law firm of Sidley Austin, LLP; and Alice Fisher, assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Justice Department. White-collar prosecutions of businesses like Arthur Andersen and Milberg Weiss law firm have become alarmingly common. A federal indictment destroyed Arthur Andersen, an eighty-nine-year-old accounting firm with worldwide revenues of $9.3 billion a year and 28,000 employees. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Andersen’s conviction, but by then the destroyed company could no long be resurrected. Professor John Hasnas, author or Trapped: When Acting Ethically Is against the Law, argued that the standard for assigning criminal responsibility to corporations is inappropriate. Dr. Hasnas claims that American law took a wrong turn when it began to hold businesses vicariously liable for crimes committed by their agents. In the post-Enron, post-Worldcom environment, businesses are treated as persons for legal purposes, but speakers at the conservative Heritage Foundation questioned the wisdom of doing so with regard to criminal punishment. Should an entire business be destroyed because of the alleged crimes of a few employees? Who should be held accountable for collective activities? Three experts addressed different aspects of this controversy in a provocative way within the Lehrman Auditorium at the Heritage Foundation.

Heritage Foundation
“Welfare Reform: What It Was and Why It Worked”

The next day, on August 17, WIP interns were invited to a second briefing at the Heritage Foundation, this one on Welfare Reform and held in the Allison Auditorium. Titled “Marking the Milestone: Welfare Reform in America and Abroad, and Building on the Foundation,” this panel discussion involved eleven impressive speakers including: Kate O’Beirne from the National Review, who served as moderator; Eloise Anderson from the Claremont Institute; Ron Haskins from the Brookings Institution; Michael Wiseman from George Washington University; Robert Rector and Jason Turner from the Heritage Foundation; Matthew Weidinger from the U.S. House of Representatives’ Human Resource Subcommittee; June O’Neill from Baruch College; Mark Greenberg from the Center for Law and Social Policy; Lawrence Mead from New York University; and the Honorable Wade Horn from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. These experts explained why the welfare legislation of 1996 was one of the most successful social-policy reforms in U.S. history. The speakers contended that in contrast to the prior system, which rewarded idleness and dependency, the new policy helped welfare dependents move toward self-sufficiency while dramatically reducing state welfare caseloads. One and-a-half million fewer children live in poverty today compared to a decade ago, and the once explosive growth in the rate of unwed childbearing has slowed down dramatically. The old system tried to address unwed pregnancy and a host of related social problems while welfare reforms focused on reducing child poverty and increasing employment. Nevertheless, lax enforcement prevented the legislation from realizing its full potential, according to the panel. Reauthorization of welfare reform in February of 2006 was aimed at promoting work among welfare recipients. Additional action may be required to help more Americans escape government dependency.

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